The Senate\u00a0this Tuesday\u00a0reversed its decision to put on hold confirmation of Presidential nominees, as it finally agreed to screen and confirm the appointment of two deputy governorship nominees for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as nominated members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the apex bank.
\nThe upper legislative chamber therefore mandated its Committee on Banking, Insurance & Other Financial Institutions chaired by Senator Rafiu Ibrahim (APC Kwara South) to proceed with the process in the interest of economic development of the country.
\nIt would be recalled that the confirmation of President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s\u00a0appointment of two CBN deputy governors, Aisha Ahmad and Edward Adamu, and other persons into its MPC was withheld because of the existing impasse between the executive and the legislative arms of government.
\nBut Senator Ibrahim who raised the issue under Point of Order 42 and 52 on matters of urgent national importance of the Senate Standing Rule, appealed to his colleagues to give exception to the confirmation of nominees into the committee since it has to do with economy.
\nHe explained that the action became necessary so as to save the nation\u2019s monetary system and the economy at large from major setback as the next meeting of the MPC holds on March 19 and 20, 2018.
\n\u201cI rise on the issue pertaining to a very significant aspect of the country\u2019s economy. I know from inception of the 8th\u00a0Senate that the 8th\u00a0Senate is pro-economy, pro-foreign direct investment, pro-foreign controlling investment.
\n\u201cWe are all aware that in January, because of the resolution of this Senate, that all confirmation according to all Acts of the National Assembly pending with us should be suspended forthwith.
\n\u201cI rise to ask that the Senate do consider the possibility of us taking the very important aspect of the economy which is the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
\n\u201cThe MPC is made up of 12 members; about seven from the private sector and five inside the Central Bank.
\n\u201cAs of today, only three of them are valid. Almost all other members, their tenure expired by December last year and that culminated into the MPC meeting not being held inJanuary 22nd\u00a0and 23rd\u00a0and the next meeting is\u00a0March 19 and 20\u201d, he stressed.
\nSenator Ibrahim said the MPC was a creation of the CBN Act and was autonomous, adding that the committee was not run by the board of the apex bank but that each meeting of the committee which was held after\u00a0every two months bothered on the economy.
\n\u201cAs it is today, it is already affecting the Foreign Direct Investment into Nigeria. Some foreign portfolio investments are already leaving, some that are supposed to come, are not coming.
\n\u201cI just want to appeal that we take only the aspect that affects the Monetary Policy Committee, which is the independent members and the two deputy governors that are members of the MPC so the committee can continue to sit and direct the affairs of the financial sector which is the heart of the economy\u201d, he said.
\nContributing, Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na\u2019Allah said the Senate had a commitment to cooperate fully with the Federal Government on everything that related to the economy and good governance of the country.
\nSimilarly, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu said it was important that the upper legislative chamber reconsider its stand in respect of confirmation of Presidential nominees, pleading \u201cwe should make this exception so that our economy does not collapse\u201d.
\nIn his remarks, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki,\u00a0said the Upper House would always give priority to the nation\u2019s economy and urged Senator Ibrahim led committee to ensure a speedy completion of the confirmation proce<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate\u00a0this Tuesday\u00a0reversed its decision to put on hold confirmation of Presidential nominees, as it finally agreed to screen and confirm the appointment of two deputy governorship nominees for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as nominated members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the apex bank. The upper legislative chamber therefore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}